Pillars of Plunder Why Does Canada Honor Butchers, Slavers, and Village Razers

“ We have no history of colonialism,” declared Canada’ s prime minister at the 2009 Pittsburg G20 meeting. A quick glance place names and monuments in the country proves the claim baseless. A different story emerges that includes imperial conquerors, merciless military officers, and hateful colonial administrators sent to North America— and worldwide— to expand the British empire, establish colonies, conquer new lands, suppress resistance, and assert racial superiority. Pillars of Plunder reveals uncomfortable truths about people whose names are everywhere, Lord Elgin ordered the destruction of the Imperial Palace in Beijing; Garnet Wolseley suppressed the first Riel/Mé tis resistance and then ordered razing of Ashante capital Kumasi (Ghana). Other entries: Lord Jeffrey Amherst; Isaac Brock; Duke of Cumberland; Horatio Nelson, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington.

Robin Philpot is a publisher, writer and translator. Author of seven books in French and in English including A People’ s History of Quebec (co-authored with Jacques Lacoursiè re) and Rwanda and the New Scramble for Africa. A graduate in History and English from the University of Toronto, he lived and taught school in Burkina Faso for two years and has lived in Montreal for many years. He founded Baraka Books in 2009.